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An A–Z of Paul Klee: J is for Jena

As our blog series continues, curator Matthew Gale outlines one of Paul Klee’s central ideas – that artists should not be confined to painting the visible things they see around them

Paul Klee, Dispute 1929

Zentrum Paul Klee

In January 1924, Paul Klee delivered a carefully prepared lecture at the Kunstverein – the public art gallery – in Jena, a city in central Germany. He made a case for the artist’s need for freedom of the imagination. This was a familiar theme, but one that he articulated with especial clarity. It is typical that he pointed out that, while everyone would recognise that there is a relationship between the buried root system and the visible crown of a tree, no one would expect them to be identical. In much the same way, Klee argued, artists act as interpreters of the worlds that feed their art but should not be expected to be identical with the visible. The lecture was published after his death, in English simply as Paul Klee on Modern Art.

Comments

No artists interpret reality should not, because that would be an attitude of superiority that pose food snob of many creators who think the world revolves around.

It would also be arrogant against humanity and lack of human intelligence that we have and eventually the art nor should fall at the extremes of fascism or dictatorship of the sign or the hermeneutics ...

No. .. I think art lurks, explores and pokes on the reality, which is roasted but not art is decoration and crafts....

No artists should not be interpreted to the other reality, but to propose a point of view, otherwise, would feed snobbish superiority that pose many creators who think the world revolves around and the last word [or form] valid able to interpret our reality.

It would also be arrogant against humanity and lack of human intelligence that we have and finally, art and artists should fall into the extremes of fascism or dictatorship of the sign or the hermeneutical ...

I think art lurks, explores and pokes about reality, but to approach any notion of reality must necessarily have a point of view from which explores, it gives meaning to the world and the web of meanings that shape to expression.